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Cuvee Juveniles sure doesn’t sound like a Barossa Valley wine at all.
The name makes it sound rather French, but the well known Barossa Valley winery, Torbreck, is known for its tongue in cheek plays on words, plus a strong tie to Rhone wine regions in France. Plus, there it was on the label: Barossa Valley. Flipping the bottle over and reading the back label, the story is that this South Australian blend was created by winemaker and Torbreck founder, Dave Powell, for his friend who just happened to own a wine bar in Paris: Juveniles Wine Bar.  It begins to all make sense. I opened the bottle and began to drink the wine. Then it became even more clear. As both Torbreck and the Barossa valley wines are known for in general, old wine producing vines make very interesting new wines. A blend of Grenache (60%), Mataro (Mourvedre)(20%) and Shiraz (20%) make a wine that seemed on first impression to be youthful and natural, without a heavy wine-making presence. Sort of pure. It got me thinking about what each of the three grapes bring to the table?
- Grenache: The Grenache brings volume—I get that at 60%. It also brightens it up and I think a good amount of the spices might come from the Grenache.
- Mataro: While used to make to make both strong, dark red wines and roses, Mataro if often used in a Grenache blend, as we see here, giving it both softness and structure.
- Shiraz: Here is the backbone and fullness. Good, balanced tannins come with the Shiraz as well.
This is a wine with a lot of complexity. The Torbreck website says its unoaked with natural malo-lactic fermentation and without filtration or fining.
Barossa Valley does it again!
The dark, dense color belies the ready accessibility of this wine. A pleasant, full and lively mouth feel. Nothing like a good Rhone from Barossa Valley! I was a little surprised with this wine. I was expecting something a little rougher and more one dimensional. I got a layered wine with lots of spices, cherries and blackberry that was ready to drink. Which, I was quite pleased to do. With a Wine Advocate rating of 91, we know these old vines still got it!  Torbreck Cuvee Juveniles 07 is ready to drink now, but with a price like this, it’s worth it to put a few bottles away to mature as well.
